Coverley has thus far made an intriguing career from his brand of esoteric primers, on interconnected subjects ranging from Psychogeography to Occult London, and with his latest, The Art of Wandering: The Writer as Walker, he re-introduces readers to a seemingly ancient tradition. Serving as a brief history of this storied connection between great, even classic, literature and the epic bouts of pedestrianism which bore them, Coverley inspires in his readers - who it must be presumed are largely made up of either walkers or writers (or both) - a peculiar kind of brotherhood.

Books have always raised hackles. When a young and relatively unknown William S. Burroughs locked horns with Scottish writers in a major debate at...

We might be used to reading their heavy prose or lengthy poetry, but now everyone from Shakespeare to De Beauvoir are having their thoughts squeezed i...